A day spent poring over 128 entries to the 2023 iD International Emerging Designers Awards resulted in a very optimistic outlook on the future of fashion design globally. The selection panel included three of New Zealand’s prima fashion designers, Tanya Carlson, Charmaine Reveley and Tara Viggo.
“One of the overarching themes I saw was dystopianism but within it there was a lot of positivity and hope that I was impressed with, given the high level of self-direction that these students accomplished,” Carlson, who is also a member of the iD Dunedin Fashion Inc board, commented. “They’ve been schooled through a pandemic and no doubt spent a lot of time out of classic classroom situations and I thought the standard was incredibly high.”
Viggo, herself a finalist in the first Awards in 2005, says, “Being part of this event can be a huge turning point for a graduate – my own career took wing, partly due to the confidence I gained, but also because my collection was presented in front of some of the industry’s key people.”
2023 Emerging Designers Awards
The iD International Emerging Designers Awards, which are sponsored by Otago Polytechnic, are one of only a couple of similar events in the world, making it a fixture—and an aspiration—on fashion school calendars everywhere.
Entries to the awards came from 33 schools in 14 countries and the 30 finalists represent a strong cross-section of those courses.
The schools are Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand (3); Central Saint Martins & Royal College of Art, London, United Kingdom (1); Fashion Design Studio, Ultimo TAFE, Sydney, Australia (4); Institut Francais de la Mode, Paris, France (1); Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, United Kingdom (5); Massey University, Wellington, New Zealand (2); Naba – Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, Milan, Italy (1); Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin, New Zealand (2); RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia (4); Shih Chien University, Taipei, Taiwan (2); Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina (1); University of Technology, Sydney, Australia (2); Whitecliffe College of Art and Design, Auckland, New Zealand (2) and Whitehouse Institute of Design, Melbourne, Australia (1).
The collections will appear in the second half of the iD Dunedin Fashion Show on Friday 31 March and Saturday 1 April 2023. The winners of the six awards will be announced at the Friday show.
Otago Polytechnic Capsule Collections
Alongside the established designers appearing in the first half of the iD Dunedin Fashion Show, five Otago Polytechnic graduates have been selected to present their collections.
“This is a fantastic opportunity for our graduates to appear alongside some of our best-loved New Zealand brands,” Margo Barton, Professor in Fashion at the Otago Polytechnic School of Design and co-chair of the iD Dunedin Fashion Inc. board, says. “It gives them a sense of the future they can have in this industry, but it also gives our established designers an insight into where the industry is heading.”
The Otago Polytechnic designers are George Park, Francesca Flynn, Finn Duffy, Russelle Ivan Tino, and Sidney North. They will each show three outfits from their 2022 graduate collections.
Stay with The Last Fashion Bible for all the latest 2023 Emerging Designers Awards news.
